N.B.A. Is Said to Allege Duplicity By Sterling

As Commissioner Adam Silver vowed to push forward with terminating Donald Sterling’s ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers, the N.B.A.’s case against Sterling came into sharper focus Tuesday.

According to the N.B.A.’s 30-page formal allegation against Sterling, a copy of which was obtained by The Los Angeles Times, the Sterling-led Clippers tried to destroy evidence relating to the league’s investigation of racist comments he had made on a recording.

The league also alleges that Sterling and his associates provided “false and misleading information” to David Anders, the league’s chief investigator, and that there is ample evidence that Sterling and his wife, Rochelle, are not estranged, as Rochelle Sterling has suggested.

Donald Sterling, who has owned the Clippers since 1981, was given the charges this week and has until May 27 to respond. A special hearing is scheduled for June 3, and if three-fourths of the league’s owners vote to sustain the charges, Sterling will be forced to sell the Clippers.

Last month, Silver barred Sterling from the league for life and fined him $2.5 million. Sterling has yet to pay the fine, and he told the league through his lawyer that he had done nothing wrong.

On Tuesday, Silver said he was open to Sterling’s selling the team on his own before going through the league’s termination process.

“We know we’re doing the right thing, and I know I have the owners behind me,” Silver said.

According to the league’s charges, Sterling went to his companion V. Stiviano, the woman on the recording, and asked her to tell the league that the voice on the recording was not his and that she had altered it.

The league also alleges that Andy Roeser, the team’s former president, received a copy of the recording from another team employee some three weeks before it was released by the website TMZ. Roeser, according to the league, told the unnamed employee to delete it from a phone.

Rochelle Sterling, who co-owns the Clippers with her husband through a family trust, said in an interview last week that she and her husband had been living in separate residences for more than a year and that she was planning to file for divorce. She also said that she would pursue litigation if the league sought to strip her of her share of the team’s ownership.

Her lawyer, Pierce O’Donnell, denied that she had played any role in a cover-up.

“Shelly continues to be unfairly tarnished by the words and actions of her co-owner and estranged husband,” O’Donnell said in a statement, adding, “While they remain business partners, Shelly has denounced his racist statements in the strongest terms.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B15 of the New York edition with the headline: N.B.A. Is Said to Allege Duplicity Over Sterling. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe